you and welcome to the Pod of the Damned. I'm your host, Ian, and joining me once again, as always, is my co-host, Nico. How's it going, buddy? I'm good. How are you? I'm alright. You're more on the mend than you were this time in our last recording. Aye, I was fucked after recording last time.
Oh, dear. Well, you're as well... My head still wasn't a fucking straight, yeah. Well, I mean, the episode came out fine. I don't think you had any super wild takes in the last episode, so I think you were all right. I think you were fine. Apart from forgetting the name for Blue Balls, aye. Apart from forgetting that, yeah. But, you know, you're only human, Nico. Aye. Anyways. Anyways.
We are a horror podcast that deep dives into a different topic every single week in our quest to create a leaderboard of the best and worst horror movies of all time. This is episode number 126 and in this week's show we are discussing the 2024 release, Alien Romulus.
Again, this is probably not quite as long as we were promising the Maxine episode that we released last week, but we've been promising this episode for a little while as well. So it's good to finally get around to this. I think in fairness with this one... We just hadn't gotten around to it because I hadn't had the chance to see it yet. And I've now seen it. So I think I have some thoughts.
whether that's good or bad i think i think this is this is definitely going to be an interesting episode topic We'll do the housekeeping. If you would like to support this podcast across our social media platforms, you can do so. We're on x at damn podcast. We're on Facebook, Instagram. We're on threads, blue sky at pod of the damned.
You can email us at podofthedamped at gmail.com and you can subscribe to us on patreon.com forward slash pod of the damned. I have recently went back to the world of streaming in the past week. So that's where I'm now streaming. I'm back to streaming horror video games on Twitch, which also, you know, if you're into horror movies and you like horror video games, and I'll be releasing episodes and clips and things from that as well.
So go and support me on there as well. Anything from you, Nico? No. No, I didn't think there would be. There never fucking is, is there? My only fans page is. No, I'm joking. it's all right i can't i can't even fucking remember what your socials are this week maybe i've been fucking maybe i maybe i've been fucking kicked in the head who knows but anyways
Like the fella once said, ain't that a kick in the head? There you go. Anyways, let's get on to it then, this week's movie topic. We are talking all about Alien Romulus. Are you sure you wanna do this? There she is. You want a break and then steal highly regulated equipment. This could be our only ticket out of here. Should be in and out in 30 minutes. Space Station. This place gives me the creeps. What the hell is this? I don't know. What the fuck was that?
There's something in the water. I don't know. There's just something in the fucking water. Run. comes. We'll face it together. Let's go. 2024 was directed by Fede Alvarez and stars Callie Spaney, David Jonson and Archie Renaud. The IMDB plot is as follows. While scavenging the deep ends of a... derelict space station a group of young space colonists come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe so um obviously in the past like
few years when it comes to alien movies. There's been a couple of attempts at making some little alien prequels in the form of Prometheus and Covenant. uh obviously you had the original sort of alien franchise alien aliens alien 3 alien resurrection you also had those uh alien versus predator movies jammed in there as well so that you know we're talking about quite a significant franchise here
Let's just get straight to the chase, Nico. Where does Alien Romulus land for you in the franchise? Like, rank it. So you know me, it's aliens at the top, then alien. Then this, I'd say. So you're going for this at third. What's like bottom of the barrel for you? Bottom of the bottle is definitely AVP2. AVP2.
because that is like it should never have been made it was just fucking awful and and and what and what about sort of prometheus and covenant because they're quite controversial ones in the franchise So, like, I prefer Prometheus to Covenant, but they're still quite fucking, like, they seem drawn out in long. Yeah, they are. They are. I think, I think... And I think I've seen this somewhere as well. I think Prometheus is a good movie, but it's a bad alien movie.
Yes. And Covenant's just a bad movie. Actually, that is a really good way of describing it. The thing about Prometheus is, right, it's a good movie, but... take the alien title out of it and it's just fucking it's decent you know i mean like make it a different fucking thing and it's a decent movie so this might end up actually being an episode where we're we're in agreement with a lot of things because uh i also put would put alien romulus as like my third favorite
in the franchise. I'm also with you in that AVP2 is absolutely an abomination that's absolutely the bottom and worst movie that's ever been released with an alien name attached to it. So where do you put AVP1? I put it two places above AVP. You totally went quiet there. I said I put it goes so AVP2 at the bottom. Then Covenant. Then AVP. Right, okay. See, there's one in between for me. What's that? And that's Alien 3.
Alien 3? You put Alien 3 that low down? Because the thing is with that original sort of quadrilogy of movies... it's like there is there's a general exception you know that three and resurrection are nowhere near as good as alien and aliens right and i think everyone will accept that you will you will be really really i mean i mean i'm sure there's somebody out there but there's
to be so few people who think that either of those movies even come close to the first two and then alien 3 pissed everyone off right in the opening scenes didn't they like that just yeah like that that probably is one of the reasons why people just like not write that movie off but just are immediately like no I don't fucking like this movie
But I think if you were to, like... We're trying to be smart with it. That's the problem. I think if you eliminate that factor, I still think you have a pretty solid movie that's, like, slap-bang, right? Like, quality-wise, probably in the middle of the franchise for me. see the cost that's in that movie as well it should have been a hell of a lot better
And I mean a hell of a lot better. I think that's what pisses me off. It was such a letdown because I'm like, oh my god, this looks fucking amazing. You know, I was so built up to go see it. And genuinely, I think Resurrection was better than fucking the third one. I mean...
For me, they're pretty interchangeable between the two of them. I wouldn't necessarily say that one of them is... Not much difference, I know, yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say that one is way clearer than the others. And maybe people will criticise us for saying that, but... Yeah, I would say Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection are kind of on a par for me. At least in terms of how I feel about them. It's the way that people always lump.
It's weird because the franchise generally seems to come in pairs when it comes to the quality. You've got Alien and Aliens, and for me, I prefer Alien over Aliens, but that's purely just because of the hot, like... the more pure horror aspects of the original Alien. And I feel like you appreciate the slightly more action-y aspect of Aliens. I love the action part of it, but the thing about Aliens is there are just so many scenes where it pulls you in, even a horror aspect.
the alien comes up behind newt and stuff you know all that shit oh yeah i'm absolutely uh no i'm not saying that like aliens doesn't have any horror aspects at all and that's not what i'm saying but i i i like there's no denying that alien is a significantly more based horror movie than aliens is aliens still has that but in terms as well like so you everyone lumps alien and aliens together You've got AVP and AVP2 that will get lumped together. Prometheus and Covenant get lumped together.
And you've got three in Resurrection to get lumped together. So does this mean we're going to get another movie that's generally on a par with the quality of Alien Romulus coming? There is another Alien movie coming. They're not done with this franchise. I mean, they're never going to be. Disney owns this franchise. Disney's never going to be done with this franchise. We're going to get more Alien content. And I think...
Well, they can absolutely get fucked with a new AVP. No one's asking for that. All the comic book fans are asking for that. Yeah, surely not another movie though. Oh, hell yeah. There is... If they'd actually stuck to the actual comics, any of the sets of comics with AVP that had done well, but they just went trying to be smart and goes, oh, we'll just chuck them together. If they'd done it like the one, I can't remember the name of it, but it's the one where the Marine gets...
He gets taken by the predators to the predator homeworld to be hunted. And as they're getting there, they get topped by another alien predator. Is that, I think, is that the one with Adrian Brodie? No, no, that's not a movie. That's the one where... Well, it's sort of like the same as what happens with Alien Brodie, except... Alien Brodie? Aye, Adrian Brodie. It's similar to that. So basically, he's getting taken.
to get hunted on a different planet. And in the comic books, they basically, they get attacked by an air predator, cut sect. And when they get attacked by them, they fucking land on a planet for their hunting aliens. For it's already been released. Since they're doing that.
the fucking this marine just gets stuck in the middle of a bottle between the alien and the predator and he's trying to survive and it's really really good i'm really i'm really i'm just really no interested in another avp movie to be honest with you i don't i genuinely genuinely don't think i would like unless we covered it on the show i don't even think i would go check it out like that's how uninterested i am in having that we are however getting a new alien tv series in 2025 alien earth um
I'm kind of excited for that. I'm surprised at that. Why? Because I didn't think they would do that. Why? Because... I didn't think they would do an Earth-based one. I genuinely thought it would always be off-world, you know what I mean? No, but I think that's... It's creepier. I think that's good, because I think... We probably should take this back to Alien Romulus since this is the movie that we're covering. But I think that's one of the good things.
I'm really excited by the fact that they're going to do an Alien Earth. If it's going to be what I suspect it's going to be. I've not really read too much about it. But there's so much I think they can explore there. There's so much that we haven't really seen before. I mean, I know we've seen aliens on Earth before in the form of like AVP and stuff like that, but in terms of like actually exploring what...
what would happen if the xenomorphs ever reached the planet Earth. I'm really excited by the prospect of what they're going to do with it. It looks like it's going to be quite a big budget TV show. So I'm giving it the same level of hope and expectation that I gave the Fallout series at this point. And I gave the Fallout series some pretty fucking high expectations. And quite frankly, it lived up to most of...
of what I wanted from it. So I'm really hopeful. One of the only ones it did. What's that? One of the only ones it did, because normally when they do TV shows that big scale, it normally fucking goes to shit. Oh yeah, no, you're 100% right. But I'm hoping it goes down that sort of level. And I think it definitely has the potential to. And I think it's one of the good things about Alien Romulus. Let's get into this.
Alien Romulus. Hold on, going back to Earth though, right? The thing I'm most looking forward to the Earth one is the alien taking over other species. Yeah. Because could you imagine it lands in a fucking zoo or something and a facehugger gets a tiger. But this is what I'm saying. There's so many different sort of roots and interesting things that can happen with an Alien Earth TV show. I hope... Like...
I don't know like how many episodes it's going to be. I hope they give it like a fully fledged fleshed out thing. I don't know if they're planning on this being like a one and done TV show. There probably is information out there because if it's coming out in 2025. Most of the information is probably already out there, I've just not researched it yet. Well, it's going to be on Hulu, and Hulu's needing a big stable, so they'll be throwing money at it.
Right, left, and center. Oh, 100%. But then you'll still also have the Disney influence in there as well, won't you? Because, you know, it's their property at the end of the day. And they won't want... They won't want their property to be put to shit by Hulu. They own part of Hulu, that's why. They'll be won. They're wanting Hulu to succeed more anyway. I mean, it'll be on Disney Plus as well. We can't get Hulu here in the UK, I don't think. Can we? No, we can't. We get it on.
Disney+. We'll get it on Disney+. But we might get it the year after. That's the annoying thing. I'm not sure we will. I think... I'm not sure we will. That's what it did with What We Do in the Shadows. What We Do in the Shadows on Disney+.
plus you see what they saw last year yeah but i think it was well like no offense because i love what we do in the shadows but what we do in the shadows is nowhere near as big a property as alien is and i think i i think no i'm just meaning that's what they did no no i get that that's what i think but i think i'm hoping that that's not the case with uh with alien uh with alien earth anyway
Alien, so, but this is what I'm saying, so, like, you have all those potentials to do with, like, Alien Earth, and I think this is one of the good things about Alien Romulus, right, because it paid a lot of lip service to fans of
like those original two movies and there's some good things about that and there's some really bad things about that and not everything it did I think necessarily they had to be in there and I don't think that particularly paid off but what it did do is it explored some new ideas gave us some new things that we hadn't seen before and i think you know that's a really brave thing to do when you're doing what what Is this the ninth?
Seventh, eighth movie in this franchise? Four, six, eight? No, the ninth. This is the ninth movie in the Alien franchise now. And you think to yourself, when you get to movie number nine, what new can you do?
without doing something like taking it to Earth. Because the setting is essentially the same. I like what they did with this one. It was more... back in the style of the first two rather than going fucking right we're going the opposite way like what basically either fucking what's it called resurrection did you know i mean like resurrection just went fuck it we're going to make an action movie there's no horror in this whatsoever
I like the way, like, let's get into this movie, right? So my favourite bit is the facehuggers grabbing the fucking bit and pulling the door open.
Yeah, well, the facehuggers themselves, like, we can spend a bit of time speaking about the facehuggers themselves, because they are explored in a completely different way to what they ever did, because this is the very first... uh movie i think this is a piece of my trivia but this is the very first alien movie that uh features them to not come from eggs
yeah like they always obviously that and that's part that's such an iconic part of like the alien imagery isn't it i mean it is the poster for the first the original alien movie is an alien egg and it's such an iconic moment And we don't have that here. These facehuggers are manufactured. And I love that whole scene. Are they manufactured? I thought they were in storage. I thought they were in storage. Was it storage?
Regardless. If you look at the thing that they came out of it, it looks like they're air-sealed. They're vacuum-packed. Vacuum-packed facehuggers. We did not fucking kill them. That's all I was thinking, you know what I mean? I'm like, eh, I suppose cryogenically frozen too, maybe. But I mean, we also know that aliens don't, the alien, this perfect organism, the xenomorph, it doesn't actually need oxygen.
Well, true, yeah. So I don't think vacuum sealing them would kill them, to be honest. But that whole scene, for me, is probably one of the more... most horror scenes in the whole movie you know when they're stuck in that room and then all the facehuggers are just leaving and the facehuggers because normally obviously in like the original movies the facehuggers just kind of latch on and we get a couple of fight scenes you know in aliens you know there's that
that fight scene between rick play and and and the face hugger when you know she falls asleep with newt but like i feel like we spend a lot more time with the face huggers in this movie than uh than we really have done in previous films and i think The movement of them, I thought, was vastly improved. I thought they were a lot more creepy. Which is saying something, because facehuggers themselves are just creepy things in general.
how they look and the sort of spider-like movements that they have but i thought they came across as like really really powerful in this and really sort of They made them more like scorpions than like spiders in this one. Because if you look at the tail but they've got kept on going up and it looked like they were going to sting with the tail even though they weren't. It was like it was really good. I liked the way they did it.
Like, they sort of ventured away from the, don't get me wrong, they're very similar, but it was more like spider move, sorry, scorpion movement than spider movement, and I was like, I quite like that. Yeah, no, like I think they really went in the right direction this time with like the face huggers. They also gave them like a different colour.
palette to what they normally are because facehuggers are obviously that usual sort of like really pale flesh color that um that we traditionally known and they weren't originally meant to be they were originally meant to be this sort of dark green color that we get in this movie But I think when they like created the original models for the original movies, they obviously came out like that flashy color.
uh before they were painted and they decided that they just really liked that instead so went with that but this is the first time but i think making them look darker they and like giving them that sort of slightly different movement and spending a little bit more time with them I really thought was clever because, you know, one of the great things about, you know, specifically the original Alien, the very first Alien movie.
even over aliens, because obviously aliens, we see a lot more of them. It's one of those things where it's less is more with when you spend with the fully formed xenomorph. You don't really get to see a fully formed xenomorph that much. And I think spending more time with the facehuggers here was a really clever...
move from them because it allowed them when we do get to the fully formed xenomorph we don't actually spend that much time especially not before you reach the fucking offspring at the very end of the movie which you know we'll have a discussion about don't get to spend a huge amount of time but um the facehuggers for me were really excellent in this movie and and probably like sort of realistically for me probably one of this like out of the three stages
obviously i love spending time with our regular xenomorph probably like the scariest one for me because then you're not only that you have that scene as well where they're having to like uh go through the hallway that's like infested with the face huggers and i fucking love that scene that's probably my favorite scene in the movie is though they've they've obviously they've and and this is but this This also comes with one of my criticisms, right?
Not just this movie, but like previous ones. So we've had eight previous alien movies that haven't really figured out how to remove a facehugger from someone's face. Haven't really figured out how to like move around without the facehuggers noticing them. managed to do both of those things in this movie within the space of about 10 minutes they're like what if we just freeze them off and then what if we just fucking raise the room to match our temperature and boom there you go
So maybe a little bit of logic, but I mean like logic missing from the curious movies. Saying that, these people are smarter than the Marines in Aliens, for example. They're smarter than the complex. That's not difficult, I guess, is it? The only one that is smarter than them is Ripley, and she's too busy looking after everybody else to think that way.
All Ripley cares about is making sure that Jonesy is safe. And I very much hope, because bear in mind, so this movie takes place... so slap bang in between alien and aliens this that's where this movie places in like the timeline um is it yes it takes place i think i think it's six years before the events of aliens I could be slightly wrong there but it takes place in between I think this place is supposed to be the colony that they go to in aliens yeah I don't think it is because the ship
gets destroyed. Yeah the ship they go to gets destroyed, not the colony they were originally on. No, but that's what I'm meaning. All the aliens are on the ship and they've got it from somewhere else. Wherever that somewhere else is, is where the colony is. But we know that all the aliens are not on the ship. Because there's, in the timeline, there's fucking five other movies that comes after it. We know that Weyland Yitani have got this, like... Other ships, yeah. Other ships.
I'm meaning this ship is in orbit of this planet and they've taken it from somewhere else and put it here. Whilst the colony... They get sent to find the fucker. Regardless of whether or not it is meant to be the specific colony, I think it's representative of the colony that they go to in Aliens.
Anyways, but yeah, going back to that story, so like that scene with the facehuggers where they're sort of trying to like creep through the room and they've raised the body temperature but they have to be quiet, that for me is an excellent scene because it does... one of those things that i really love and it works with uh it works with silence and we've spoken before about how like no sound cut is part of a soundtrack it's part of a score yeah um and i think they utilize that really well
here because that's a really because facehuggers are generally fucking creepy things anyway and i don't think there'll be many people out there who disagree with that i think most people find facehuggers relatively creepy I also like how they concentrate on the fucking Android more as the main hero. I quite like that. Yeah, so when I watched this for the first time and I was putting into my notes, I specifically put a note down being like...
Oh, is there going to be some sort of twist with Andy? Because traditionally that's what we get from an alien movie isn't it like if you go back to alien and we'll come on to ash and ian holm from the original alien movie because there was a bit of controversy around that this movie didn't get a pass really for that but we'll talk about that in a second and then of course in aliens
they sort of allude to it at the very end that bishop betrays them and flies off but then he comes back to be the hero and in this so i immediately went into this movie and i was like right there's going to be some sort of twist with andy here because that's just what they do they fuck with you
when it comes to the synthetics. And they did it sort of early on when they put the fucking chip in. But that was it. Like, once he got his own chip back again, he was like, fucking, all right, I'm saving everyone. But that was the thing, right? So yeah, they did it early on. They put this new chip with him that repaired whatever issues there was with him or gave him the upgrades that he required. Upgrades so he could open the door, yeah. Yeah, he increased his intelligence.
And it gave him a new directive, right? And we know from Alien movies, and I must say... Fede Alvarez, the director, he's also said that he took a lot of inspiration from Alien Isolation, the video game. I don't know if you've played that, Nico, but for anyone at home who maybe has... Yeah, which is, by the way... Second best game in the game franchise.
though. Really? What's the first one? The fucking Alien vs Predator multiplayer one. Oh no, go fuck it. Absolutely go fuck yourself. You could not be more wrong. The original one on fucking PC, you're joking. Alien Isolation is possibly one of the greatest, not just horror games of all time. Probably is one of the greatest horror games of all time. It's absolutely incredible. 10 out of 10 game. Easily the best game in the franchise. I do not deny it.
epically good as a single player game but you gotta remember i'm a multiplayer guy and that was genuinely one of the best multiplayer games ever and it's a fucking travesty how much folk didn't fucking play it it was just epic you there was one game in it there was one game mode where you were the alien and you eventually if you killed enough folk became a fucking queen and was killing folk as a queen it was brilliant
Alien Isolation is still better. Anyways, um... For a single player guy, yeah. Regardless, Alien Isolation, uh, there's a lot of influences from Alien Isolation there, um, in this movie as well. And, uh... You've made me forget my original fucking point, Nico. See, you fucking go on these tangents about fucking games that no one played and no one cares about. Honestly, right, I'm not joking. It got me, Buck.
But he never, and his directive changes, yes, right? So his directive changes, and he kind of does become the sort of, the company, well, he does become the company synthetic, but he still never really seems to actually turn. on the humans like yeah yeah he but that's because they're incubators for the fucking alien no I get that but like even then like you know you know how like Ash turned in the original movie like he He actively tried to kill the humans.
And he still tries to save them at some point here. So like there is the differences there and then I think maybe the twist is at the very end he reverts back to his original state and I think maybe that's where the bigger twist comes in. Ah, well, because they put the dollar chip block into the... Well, yeah, they remove... It's just like a little add-on, isn't it? They remove that module out of his core. But like...
I don't think, I personally wasn't expecting that. I wasn't expecting him to eventually revert back to his original state. I thought he was either going to just carry on, become almost like Burke in Aliens, or he was just going to like... meters end so so i kind of like that as well they played around with it a little bit whilst we're on the topic of synthetics right let's talk about ash because Although technically Ash isn't in this movie, we have this synthetic called Rook.
But they've AI digitally created Rook to look like Ian Holm's Ash character from the original Alien movie. Yeah. This AI CGI is fucking abysmal. But a lot of the CGI, I don't know how the CGI has got worse. Like, what? For years and years, CGI was just getting better and better and better. And then, for some reason, it's going back the way and folk are liking it. I don't know. I spoke about this.
And folk were like, I think the CGI is amazing. And I'm like, fuck off. I mean, I think in general... No, no, it's brilliant. I mean, there's a lot of... This movie does, again, try to use, like, mostly practical effects. I think in general... This movie looks fantastic. This is really the only part of this movie where I really have an issue.
it's just so bad. Like, the recreation, it's so, so bad. It's awful. It's almost heinous. I would almost deduct a full fucking point off of this movie for this CGI. It's a... abysmally, Bart. Yep. But for some reason, I don't think they had faith in this movie. I don't think they thought it was going to be as good as what it actually was. If you look at it, I remember...
Like, there was hardly any fucking PR for it fucking before it came out. You know what I mean? Not here in the UK anyway. I'm not sure. Maybe there was in the States, but there definitely wasn't here in the UK. So... I remember how much PR was thrown behind fucking the third one, Resurrection, AVP, all of them, right? Even AVP too. There was none of that fanfare. There was none of the fucking shit with this. You know what I mean? That's what I'm saying.
If I hadn't went to the cinema, I wouldn't have even known this was coming out. That's what I'm saying. There was next to nothing here in the UK. That's what I'm saying. I'm not 100% sure how much there was in the States. They sometimes, obviously... We'll have a different PR department or have a different marketing system over there than they do over here. But there definitely wasn't much here in the UK. So, yeah. Yeah. Regardless of that, I mean, so obviously with that...
with the inclusion of Ian Holm here, did come a bit of controversy. So regardless of how bad or good you think that CGI is, it's fucking terrible. So if you think it's good, you need to get your head checked. Agreed. There was a lot of controversy. There's a lot of people out there saying that it was in really poor taste to recreate Ian Holm, because obviously Ian Holm sadly passed away not that long ago, pretty relatively recently, in the last couple of years.
Sir Ian Holm, sorry. I put some fucking respect on that name. But... some people were saying that was in really poor taste to recreate him what i will say is it did come with the blessing of his family his family did say yes they gave the go-ahead to um for them, the creators, sorry, to recreate and use his likeness for this movie. See, I've always been the school that if the family's fine with it, fuck everyone else. Yeah, I'm kind of of that school as well, I think.
the family not either not been consulted or not given their blessing then i think it's in really poor taste but i think because the family gave their blessing here i'm perfectly fine with them using it i just wish they'd done a better job of it I've done it justice, basically. Pretty much. But there is a lot of people out there that think it's in really poor taste that they've done so. And listen, this is not the first time. Not really.
Because the thing is, he's an android, so it's like, it fits having him there. 100% it fits, because why wouldn't it fit that they use the same face on multiple androids? Like, that's...
That absolutely fits. I do love, however, that the creators of the movie gave a very Weyland-Yutani response to these criticisms. And they're like, we feel like we've done this justice, blah, blah, blah. It was just like, that is like the most... weyland yutani response you could possibly fucking give it's like essentially going we don't care what you think we're happy with how it went um
But yeah, I personally am of that school of thought. I think as long as the family gave their consent and gave their sort of seal of approval. I'm not sure how they think post-movie, given the CGI issues. I mean, the likeness is definitely there. You looked at it, you saw it, and you immediately went, oh, it's fucking Ash from the first movie. That in itself was quite... No, it's fucking Nate!
That in itself, though, was quite a nice thing, I think, to happen as a nice throwback. But like I say, I just wish they'd done it a little bit better. Speaking of throwbacks, because that's not the only references to other alien properties that we get. Right, so this is the one that I hate. Right, okay. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me guess. The one you hate is...
Get away from her, you bitch. No, it's get away from her. Five days later. You bitch. You bitch. They fucking... butchered this line in this movie like absolutely butchered it it was it was not good um listen i get
I had to explain that to the person I was in the cinema with because they had never seen a fucking alien movie. Oh my lord. I get wanting to have the iconic line, right? Because, you know, they've... like avp had uh had the main character do the whole you're one ugly motherfucker line you know like franchises like to repeat like the things that make them famous right
And so I get them wanting to have the line here. Number but there's a couple of things. I don't think having the synthetic say it was a particularly clever thing.
I think it should absolutely have been Rain, our main character, that got to say that line. And she should have gotten to say it when her friend Kay was giving birth to the... to the offspring or something like that you know there there was multiple opportunities for them to slip it in here and have it be our main female lead character multiple opportunities aye just to slip it in just to slip it in aye
The double entendre was absolutely not intended. Uh-huh. Did the fucking alien when it impregnates her just opportunity to slip it in, aye? Yeah. Fucking shocking. But no, I get why they used Andy, because he's the main focus in this. Without a doubt, it's not like any other alien movie. That's what I quite like about this. Because the main character is always, and it always is...
the female heroine in every single one. Yeah, but we like that about this franchise because that's so... It's not a negative, I'm saying, but I like the way they turned it. and changed it from being... Because when you start watching this, you're like, well, Reign is going to be the new Ripley, is basically what you're watching. She kind of does. She gets the big final head-to-head.
Yeah, she gets the final head-to-head, but everything else building up to that is Andy, which I quite liked. I liked the fact that it wasn't just, oh, you're there, you're fucking, you're hard as nails, you're a woman, fucking, like, you know what I mean? Quite a lot of movies nowadays will throw that down your throat. And they'll do the exact same thing with anybody else. And I like the fact that they made it something totally different by making it the Android.
Nobody ever does the Android. Apart from Terminator, nobody ever does the machine is protecting the people. Nobody ever does, well, this is its prime directive, that's why it does it. And I quite like that.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, listen, again, like we said, this is one of the good things I think I liked about Alien Romulus is that he managed to... given that it's the ninth movie in the franchise it really did manage to explore some new ideas and new things that hadn't really been done in the alien franchise before so i i i give it props for that um but again once again like
And I absolutely am fine with them throwing in callbacks and lines and characters and things from previous Alien movies. I'm absolutely fine with that.
but once again left just being like I really wish you'd just done a better job of it when it comes to that line because that line obviously for those who don't like if you don't know where that line comes from and you're watching alien movies like you really I think you really need to go back and check out the original two but obviously is the one of the most the most iconic line in the franchise from aliens you know when Ripley
to save Newt from the alien queen and you know she says get away from her you bitch and it's it's such an iconic line and it's such a powerful line as well But this doesn't get delivered with any power in this movie. It's almost like... That's the thing I said, right? So I was in a cinema with somebody who hadn't seen any of the other movies, right?
And I literally said, well, they fucked that lineup. And it was a case of, fucked what lineup? And then I had to explain it. And I was like, that feels weird. Yeah, it is. They really didn't do well with that. But anyways, let's talk about The Offspring, because that's probably the other... big aspect of this movie that we haven't really talked about yet um there is there is some other stuff that we'll we'll talk about as well but um we get this sort of we we get a human uh xenomorph
Mutant? I don't know how you want to call it. I was a throwback to fucking Resurrection, if I've ever seen one. Yeah, um... It was awful. I'm fine with the concept.
And we also have this whole concept of the compound that they're protecting, which we haven't really seen. And I like that idea that they've created a compound that can create this sort of... this this human xenomorph cross and it's their kind of count their plan is to kind of use it to upgrade uh the human race as as you will it's almost a it's a bit doctor who isn't it like you know they're gonna upgrade the human race with this compound it's it's like a
All right, Cyberman. It's exactly what it is, isn't it? A generic Cyberman. It's essentially a fucking Cyberman plotline. But I actually liked the concept a lot. But that's because it's tying everything together. So that mutant thing, it ties in basically resurrection. It ties in Prometheus in Covenant. It ties in all that stuff together. Yeah.
make it the next level thing and I feel like they've introduced that too early I don't know I think no I don't think they have because I think following on from Prometheus and Covenant which Regardless if you think Prometheus is a decent movie or not, in terms of the Alien franchise were poor entries into the franchise. I think it was a smart idea to wrap all that stuff up.
as quickly as possible. I don't think you want stuff lingering. I don't think you want people going back and being like, oh, well, they haven't touched on this that was in Covenant. I think it was really, it's probably actually quite difficult. not difficult but like it's quite an impressive thing to be able to wrap up so much from those previous movies and just kind of put it in a bow and now in properties you can put it to one side now.
And you never have to fucking talk. The reason I say I think they've done it too early is because... If this is in between Alien and Aliens, that means you should have had one in Aliens. You know what I mean? They should have, whatever the next movie is, they should have it after Aliens and maybe introduce it there. So you more have an issue with the fact that this movie is probably set a little too early then.
so not so yeah so you're meaning too early as in too early in the timeline i thought you meant as too early in like the this new batch of alien content that we were getting no no i mean they should have had it for continuing From the story like if if they had it these things came from the planet that aliens was on yeah
but it's on a ship on a different planet then that's understandable but you've got aliens out of the way you know what I mean I think how they always sort of get around that isn't it that like Weyland-Yutani is this huge corporation and the people that we get to meet are only really
pawns in weyland yutani's like grand scheme and i think like in the second in aliens you know like you say this this concept of like the the offspring hasn't been introduced in the movie aliens they've not explored that yet But maybe Burke, like Burke, for example, he's the sort of face of Weyland Jutani in that movie.
We're probably just led to believe that he's just not aware of this sort of experiment that's gone on a few years prior because he's just a pawn in the company. That's how they get around it. I suppose, but... On the flip side of that, he's the one that's fucking trying to make the most money out of using it as a weapon. You know what I mean? And if it's got the compound that's trying to upgrade human beings, you wouldn't need it as a weapon. You know what I mean? You would be the weapon.
But again, like... No fucks up to continue. Yeah, so, yeah, I get what you're saying. So, like... I don't think it's a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. That just annoys me. That's what I mean. That's what I'm saying. There's not really a huge amount in this movie. You can watch this.
as a standalone movie as well which is again i think one of the sort of like really impressive things about this movie because it does tie in quite a lot to previous movies in the franchise but you are still able to watch this as a standalone movie and i i i like that in a franchise i like it when it reminded me of prey a little bit like that yeah i like it when movies do that you know not
every single movie in your franchise needs to or indeed even can be like that that just isn't always possible if you're trying to tell a story But I really like it when they are able to do that. And I think they've managed to do that here with Romulus. But once again, like, so aside from that, I don't really like the effects on the offspring.
like if you see the picture of the guy that's in the hospital oh yeah like the guy is the guy by the way is seven foot seven in real life yeah he is a fucking giant of a man yeah But the CGI they used in this to create and the effects they used in this were just not good whatsoever. And again, it's shocking because this is a huge budget movie. Yeah. And they really didn't do it justice.
I totally agree with you, because there's little bits, little niggly bits that let this movie down. And I'm not going to be a dick about it. The bits that are the... The bits that let it down are bits that let down other movies. Yeah. Because Perfect Example is the fucking one at the end. That was one of the fucking worst things in fucking...
Resurrection, AVP2, the whole shabam. You know what I mean? It was one of the worst ones in all of them. Why you would have that, I don't know why. But it's still a decent enough movie. yeah no that's what i'm saying like this movie for me in the whole if you look at this movie just in the round as an overall yeah this is a really good fucking movie i'm definitely like i'm definitely gonna watch this movie again
I'm going to watch it again multiple times. I had really good fun with it. The issues I have... are probably issues that don't really affect my enjoyment of the movie it's more the sort of perfectionist in me just doesn't like them and it's mostly issues around effects for me that like luckily doesn't really take me out of the movie like the the the ash one for example the effects look fucking terrible but i'm really like
The nostalgic, kind of empathetic person in me is just kind of really happy to see Ian Holm on my screen one last time, you know? Yeah. You know, the thing with the end, the offspring, yeah, it's shit. but we're probably never ever going to like explore that again in the franchise or if we do it's probably going to look different because this looks so fucking terrible.
And I think the good well outweighs the bad in this movie. I also like, and I think there's some really other cool stuff in this movie that... we haven't really talked about yet so for example uh the scene where she finally decides that she's just going to shoot all the xenomorphs and then they have to like float through all the acid bloods i love that scene i think that's such a cool idea i thought that was a really cool
cool visual I think they did that really really well so stuff like that you know there's there's a really thing and let's let's go back to like the effects because like there's some really fucking cool practical effects in this movie right So the see through the body is a really good effect. Yeah, the x-ray flashlight thing that she has. Yeah.
Yeah, and again, it immediately also solves the issue of figuring out whether or not someone has been impregnated by one of the xenomorphs. Yeah. I really loved, so like... traditionally as well in the first alien movies you know following the chestburster scene because we obviously get a chest bursting scene in this movie as well it's an alien movie you can't have an alien movie without a chestburster and uh it was a bit of a letdown to this chestburster it wasn't as
bursting it was more like a crawl out i think i think for this one i think as well though like the the blooms a little off the rose with the chestburster scene you know it's coming you know what's gonna happen so maybe they've just thought well let's not make it the focus because it's it's apps like in the original movie is absolutely like the most shocking thing isn't it like
holy fucking shit, what's going on? There's still, like, huge shock value to it in movies. There's no shock value to the Chessburser now because we know it's coming. We know it's going to happen. So let's not make a big song and dance about it. Fine. Absolutely fine with that. But what I'm speaking about, so in those like original movies, you know, the chess person comes and then it fucking runs away.
And then before you know it, it's a fully fledged xenomorph, right? But we have this idea in here that it cocoons itself after it gets released. And it cocoons itself. And I don't know if you felt like this one. Once it's eaten, basically. It cocoons itself in a giant vagina. Yeah. Like, that was just a big pussy that it fucking cocooned itself in, right? Yeah.
100%. You're like, do you know what it reminded me of? Remember the bit in fucking Starship Troopers where he roms the thing in the fucking brain bug?
Yeah. Reminded me of that, wasn't it? Because it looks very, very similar to that. But listen, I'm going to go with it because this was fully intentional, and of course... one of the big representations of the Alien franchise, a lot of what happens in the Alien franchise does have kind of like sexual overtones, it's very- a lot of what happens with the Xenomorph- it's HR Geiger and his creations, like they're very phallic and they're very-
they're very rapey yeah yeah no but it is it is part of like the theme isn't it it's part of like what this movies are trying to say it's in it's the invasion of your body and so like they've they've they've carried that on here with that which i am perfectly fine with i thought it was a really cool fucking effect i thought like
them just destroying it by shoving the fucking electric probe up it as well was actually kind of a little bit it was well you know no kink shaming here you're into what you're into eh um but like I actually thought that was, like, a kind of needed moment of levity in the movie as well. There was something a little bit funny about it. Yeah. I'm not going to lie, I love it.
And I thought that was just, I just thought that was kind of a neat little concept there as well that we didn't really see in the original movies. It was good, like, but... I'm not gonna lie, I did laugh at the totally inappropriate time when she fell down the fucking straight after, you know, when she fell out the fucking hatch. Oh, yeah. Like, I laughed out.
I laughed out louder at that bit. That's what I'm saying. There is points in this movie. There is a few little moments left, which is not something we generally get. We got a lot in Aliens, and that's mainly through fucking Bill Paxton.
RIP. Because he, and not just Bill Paxton, you know, Jeanette Rodriguez and the rest of the Marines in that movie, you know, they provide us with some good funny moments in that movie. But generally, once the shit hits the fan, that kind of goes out the window a little bit. it doesn't it um and here like obviously it's delivered in a very different manner but it was good um i did like at one point as well
I think it's earlier when they go to visit her ex and all their family. One of them is playing a game on the screen. Did you notice that on the screen it says Game Over Man?
Oh, no, I didn't even notice that actually. Yeah, you should go back and check that. I thought that was a really cool little... I thought that... I really loved that. Quite a cool throwback. That's a great throwback. And that's the kind of little Easter eggs and throwbacks that I really like to see. You know, because obviously Bill Paxton...
is probably the most, aside from Sigourney Weaver, is probably like the most popular person from this franchise. He's probably the most popular character from this franchise. So I love that there was a little bit of callback to it there.
so yeah like so all of that stuff i really like so there were some really good effects works in this movie and it's mostly the practical effect stuff the xenomorph i thought looked really cool i really like the xenomorph look in this movie it looked like a nice traditional xenomorph but with a slightly sort of more sleek and modern twist i thought um i thought the face huggers looked really really good in this movie and i really liked how they utilize them i thought the uh the the the sort of
The webbing and the cocoons and stuff look really good. So there's some really, really good stuff in here in terms of how this movie looks. And I do think they sort of got the whole alien aesthetic right in terms of, you know... the old style computers and the noises that they make and the things like that they used a different slightly different color palette excuse me on this one like alien movies are normally traditionally used with that sort of like
bluey greeny colour palette and they used a sort of more orangey one here which I still felt had the same effect but it allowed this movie to maybe just stand out on its own a little as well so I kind of like that too. I liked how all the fucking technology looked retro again. You know what I mean? It looked like what we thought the future stuff would be in the 80s and 90s, you know what I mean? Yeah, 100%. Instead of this. But the thing is, right, and, I mean, this movie...
I mean, these movies are still set way in the future. They're not set that far in the future anymore. Like, you know, I mean, not in our lifetimes, but like, they're not like... so beyond far in the future that it's going to become ridiculous. I mean, the original Alien movie, it's less than 100 years until the original Alien movie supposedly takes place now.
I'm literally just keep stalling. I'm looking up when it's set. Alien was set in 21-22. Oh, have you already got it? I've already got it. Okay. So it's 98 years until the original movie. So again, not in our lifetimes.
yeah but you know our children's or our grandchildren's they they might they would they'll live our children's or grandchildren's you sure about that yeah um well not not mine's and yours personally because there are generations i was speaking in a generational sense um i think one of the other things i want to give this movie props for as well though is like it has a really nice tight cast
like there's really not a lot like obviously you get the opening scene on the colony and there's lots of people but like in terms of like your core cast here it's really fucking tight you know there's only what six outside of like the xenomorph what six characters yeah you got you've got rain and andy you've got kate and tyler and then you've got um
I forget their names. Bjorn and Navarro? Navarro. Yeah, so that's your cast. There's six of them. And then I suppose you could put Rook in there as well as a character. you know, and then obviously the xenomorphs. But I love the fact that we've got a nice tight cast here. Having said that...
Bjorn and Navarro are probably two of the most annoying fucking characters because I feel like at this point, right, please stop just giving us fucking idiots when it comes to the xenomorphs, right? This is the ninth- But you need something to get fucking caught. Yes, I know, I get that, but like, they were really frustrating characters. Why, what do you mean? You know exactly, they're just, well, number, like...
The whole fucking treatment of Andy, like, Bjorn himself was a really unlikable character. Which I get, like, you have to have some unlikable characters because you want to... As horror fans, you want to root for the villains at points. Bjorn was definitely that really unlikable character. Navarro wasn't that far behind him, to be fair. Kay I thought was a pretty likeable character up until her actually injecting herself with the compound because why the fuck would she do that?
I don't care. I might try it if I was in that situation. Would you try it? Would you inject yourself with the gold? I don't care. You know what? See if you do. I hope a fucking... Offspring humanoid fucking xenomorph shoots right out the end of your cock. No, but that's the thing, if you were male it would be totally different. She's only like that because she's pregnant already.
I don't know. You don't know what effect it's going to have to you. Maybe it creates a womb in your fucking intestines and you shit one out. I reckon it would mock you like pork. Xenomorph? I reckon you'd be almost like the offspring, nay quite. You want to be a human Xenomorph cross. But see if, right, I'm not being a dick about this, but see if you could be a Xenomorph but with your mind, right? You'd be fucking, you'd be the shit.
Well, partially. Like, put it this way, your blood changes to acid and you're that fucking agile. You'd be... I mean, I have no real... I don't know what use I would have for me to have acid blood. What would the purpose of that be, for us to have acid blood? It would be fucking fun for getting rid of the bodies that you killed. Fuck me. So you have to cut yourself every time you kill a body? That's fine. You grow back, do you? Jesus Christ.
I think the only port part of like a xenomorph that I'd really want to be that I really think would have real life benefits would be to have like a xenomorph tail. Oh yeah. 100%. I think the human race could do. I think that's the upgrade that we need. We need to get, we need to start growing tails. We need one of these. Yeah. And I feel like, and like a usable tail, like, like we, like one we can hang off shit and fucking...
and pick stuff up with. That's the sort of evolution I want to see. I'd tell it's an extra hand basically with a knife on it. Yeah, not an extra hand because then you'll start using it for immoral purposes. That knife might be a moral purposes as well. Don't know, like, if it was Telefire 3, you could just use yourself. That's just what I say. You could just fucking wank yourself off with it. There you go. There's the Telefire 3 reference for the episode. There you go. There you go.
Anyways. Of course it would be the bit that Dave's fucking herself about her. The last part I want to make is not necessarily about the movie. It's about Fede Alvarez who directed this film because... Fede Alvarez, I think, is a real fucking star when it comes to horror directors at this point. He's taken on a couple of big franchises now.
and put his own spins on them and i think he's done a really fucking good job so obviously like alien romulus i think in the in the main you know i think we're all going to be in agreement that this is a good movie and he's done a really good job it's not going to be anyone's favorite of the franchise but i don't think it was ever going to be anyone's favourite from the franchise I think I think he's done it right by setting it up for
possibly having better ones after. This is a bridge movie. And it's done very well. He's set things up, he's tied things off, but he's also made a nice self-contained movie that you can watch independently without watching the rest of the franchise. And I also... think like the the likelihood of anyone
ever creating an alien movie that's better than Alien and Aliens is slim to none. People always turn around and say, you know, like the originals are always going to be the best. And that's not always the case because the other franchise that Fede Alvarez took on was the Evil Dead franchise. and he directed the 2013 Evil Dead remake. And I personally think that is the best movie in that franchise. So he's proven that you can take a loved original IP.
put your own spin on it and still create something that is I at least I think and there are other people out there with a similar train of thought to me there are people who don't think so so like they're entitled to that opinion but can create something that really challenges the original in terms of the quality and regardless of Why do people...
think it's better or not there again there's no denying that evil dead 2013 is an absolutely fantastic movie with some really interesting concepts and really just taking the ideas from the evil dead franchise and making it into its own and creating something that is totally so different as well so he's proven that he can take on massive ips and really turn them into his own and still create something good he also directed don't breathe um which is
you know an original concept and again regardless of whether you think that like there are people out there that have loved that movie there are people out there that don't love that movie I think it's a perfectly solid movie. There's some wild concepts in that movie. I'm just going to say that. I just noticed the camera. I'm petting my cat. I'm just doing this so you know.
I should say that the folk that can actually see us, I'm not wanking on folk. Because I just caught myself there and all he's saying is this. I mean, Nico, you used to record these nakeds. Well, yeah, that's true. That's true. I never wanked at it. I remember how pissed off you were the day I started making you wear clothes, though. Oh, it was fucking annoying. I'd still rather do this naked.
Maybe one day I'll let us do an audio-only episode so you can do it naked again. Dude, I feel more human that way. But yes, I thought I would have to show that there because anyone who does watch it... would have thought, what the fuck is he doing? But anyways, the point I'm sort of making is, so when it comes to like your horror stars, when it comes to directors, especially in 2024, you know, people think of people like Jordan Peele and Ari Aster and Robert...
Eggers and those people are absolute stars but I think Fede Alvarez has earned his place amongst those people. I think he is definitely an absolute star of horror directors. I want to see what he does with the next because he set it up for he can go a lot of different directions with this and if he's doing the next you know what I mean it'll be it'll be very interesting to see if he can do something
hopefully in the timeline after, you know what I mean? Yeah. Well, it remains to be seen, but I think one thing we can definitely say is that the future is bright. You know, this isn't a movie that's killed. This definitely hasn't killed the franchise. You know, we've got a TV show coming next year that I'm really excited for. I think there's quite a few people out there that are really excited for. We know we're going to get more movies down the line.
you know he hasn't killed the franchise like so many of these sort of recreations like if you look at trying to them the exorcist that came out last year with from david gordon green absolutely killed the franchise dead you know um and stuff like that so i think he's done a really good job
um aside from that he is very good at taking stuff and actually making it work for a nowadays audience yeah which is very very good to do one thing like so there's a couple of there's a couple of more sort of storyline aspects of this
that I want to quickly get into this, right? Also, going back to the callbacks, right? They did... One thing I will say is them... rain going back down the elevator shaft to go and find andy right they just ripped off the entire like final act of aliens right like that was just like a total rip off that i'm just just want to throw that in there um the idea of this going to go back quickly to the idea
the sort of human xenomorph concept if you had a xenomorph human cross right wouldn't it have some sort of concept of empathy and loyalty because i'm assuming there's still human aspects to this You've got to remember, it'll purge the fucking, like, weakness out of it. It's going to be the apex better. So then it's only a human slash xenomorph cross in looks only.
Right. That and fucking how it can procreate. Because that's what the thing is with the... Every time they do a fucking one like that, it's to get out of having them coming out of the egg. Instead, it comes out of your dick. Okay, fair enough. I just want to throw that out there and finally right and this is this is a teeny tiny tiny tiny tiny
tiny thing that kind of bugged me, right? So at the very end of the movie when they're going into cryogenic stasis, right? Why does Andy need to go into cryogenic stasis? He's a synthetic. Surely he can just live so i'm thinking that's so that he can try and pass as a human because remember they said he don't have to bend him from the get there because fucking he won't be welcome I mean, surely they're going to know when they examine him.
Obviously. So, yeah. It's a tiny, tiny detail, right? But it's one that just sort of annoyed me a little bit. Anyways. It's the only thing I could think of. It annoyed me as well. And then I'm like, well, maybe he's trying to pass as a human.
That's it for what I've got on my list of things I want to say about Alien Romulus. Nico, anything you want to talk about that I haven't touched upon yet? No, it was just unlike the last movie we reviewed. This has been... good to re-watch and fucking I actually enjoyed it again I think that's the thing because again like
i think as time got closer we as it got closer and closer to the release of this movie we like fans horror fans we did start to get excited about it but there was there again there wasn't the fanfare for alien romulus that there was for maxine and in my opinion, this is a far superior movie to Maxine. Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah. So we'll just go with that. Anyways, let's move on then to our next segment, and we'll talk about some trivia.
I'm sure if we bashed your head in, all sorts of secrets would come tumbling out. As always, we'll start off with the finances of this movie. So this movie, according to IMDb, had a budget of $88 million. So a huge budget, but probably to be expected given that it's an alien movie.
A huge IP with Disney-level backing, so an $80 million budget to be expected. Having said that, with an $80 million budget, I would have expected some better CGI, but that's by the by. And as of when I checked... last for this podcast which was probably about four or five days ago this movie had grossed worldwide 350 million dollars so a success a huge financial success
making more than 400% its budget. So no wonder we're going to get more movies in this franchise. 350 million is pretty fucking impressive for a horror movie. Director Fede Alvarez, he... specifically sought out the special effects crew. from the original Aliens movie in 1986, so from Aliens in 1986, to work on the creatures. They used them to create physical sets, the practical effect creatures and miniatures were used to help.
uh whenever possible so i thought that that was a really smart thing for him to do is to seek out those guys and get them to essentially recreate the sets and the creatures for him because you're pretty much guaranteeing there there's least a level of continuity and a high quality level when it comes to those practical effects yeah so It was smart of him. As we've alluded to, so this film takes place in between alien and aliens.
It takes place in the year 2142 so it's 20 years after the original Alien movie and 37 years before Aliens. Right. So it's pretty much slap bang in the middle between those two movies. That makes sense. The director, Fede Alvarez... made sure to use as many practical effects as possible when making the film including building xenomorphs that could be operated by puppeteers so it's mostly puppeteers in this movie which again
We will never complain about a director willing to use practical effects over CGI. You can see the difference in this movie alone, so we're pleased he did that. This is the most profitable Alien film since Aliens.
so no film since aliens has made as much money as this film so and and this film will only go to on to make more money you know it's it's it's out of the theaters now but it's it's hit streaming services so this film will go on to make a huge amount of money more um in the coming months um as again So the last two bits of trivia that I have are ones that I've kind of already alluded to. So around 10 minutes into the movie when Rain and Andy first arrive at Tyler's ship.
Bjorn is playing a computer game that says game over man which is of course a famous line from Hudson played by Bill Paxton in Aliens and that's probably one of my little my favorite little callbacks in the whole movie I can't believe I never noticed that. I'm sure you will go back and watch it and find it now. It's right at the start of the film. It's literally in the opening in like 10 minutes.
And this is the first alien movie in the franchise not to feature the eggs that incubate the facehuggers, which I'm not, I'm not disappointed. I don't really care that they didn't use them in this movie. It was quite a bold move considering how iconic an image that is for the franchise to not have it but I think it was possible they had it on most of the box sets you know what I mean like every box set would normally have the egg on the front
But yeah, that's what I mean. It's one of those things that I think they managed to get rid of without really pissing anyone off or anything like that. So I think they did a smart job there. They didn't really need it in this because it was more like labs and stuff. And the first thing you would do if you were doing it in the labs and stuff is get them out of there. Yeah, I mean, it fits the storyline. And that's what I mean. They managed to create the storyline that they didn't need them.
so why have them because I think I feel like if you had them in here it might not it might just not make sense and it would have probably felt like one of those things that they just kind of shoved in as to pay lip service again to the fans like they did with get away from her you bitch like they did with like um the cgie in home there was like there was for as much as i like
thought that was a good concept to have the cgie in home they fucked it up essentially um you know so i think i'm glad they they decided that they just didn't need it to be honest Yeah. Any other pieces of trivia from you? I've got fuck all. You've got fuck all. Okay, right, let's move on to our final segment then, which is the ratings and the reviews. A census taker once tried to test me.
I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti As always we'll start off with the critic scores IMDB has this as a seven point 2 out of 10 Metacritic has it at 6.4 Nico what do you think the Rotten Tomatoes critics scored this? I'm thinking more now because you said 7.2 Do you want the original two movies as a comparison? No, no, I'll try it. Because I remember, like, so what I did see of the critics, they were high on it. So...
I think it was more than 72 though. I'll go... 78. The Rotten Tomatoes critics have this at 80%. fresh so you're very very close there um critics consensus honoring its nightmarish predecessors Whilst chest bursting at the seams with new frights of its own, Romulus injects some fresh acid blood into one of cinema's great horror franchises. Can I just say, I fucking hate the critics' consensuses on Rotten Tomatoes.
so fucking pretentious they think they're dripping with oh yeah they think they're dripping with fucking cleverness and they're just oh honestly anyways uh What do you think the Rotten Tomatoes audience scored this? Come on, you help. What do you think? Higher or lower? Purr if it's higher. Purr if it's higher. So I'll say higher. How much higher? It was 80 for the credits. How much higher? 80. I want to do my usual 82, but I do that all the time, so I'm going to go higher.
I'll go 84. Remember last time you didn't do your usual two. Oh, fuck off. Is it 82 again? No, no, no. This time it was 85%. It was 85%. So you're only one out with that. So 85%. The audience consensus, resurrecting a franchise with equal servings of fan service and originality, Alien Romulus keenly delivers Xenomorph blood and thrills. so yeah like really high scores pretty much across the board there you know that
Yeah, the Metacritic have it at 6.4, but Metacritic tends to be the lowest out of all the critic sites that we use. They're by far the harshest, so having that be the lowest there is not really that big a surprise. But yeah, really good scores all around. As always, we throw it out to you guys, our followers and listeners, asking for your reviews and scores. I'm just going to read out a few this week just so we can crack on with this.
Dissect that film gave it an 8. Even with some awful callbacks, this is near the top of my rankings for this franchise. It has a wonderful mix of everything this franchise has to offer. John Benfield also gives it a solid eight, but spoiled by silly fanservice lines. The line being the main one, but it was a great time and easily the best alien film for a long time. And unamused Snorlax gives it a seven. I liked it.
until the final act which felt like it belonged to a different movie so yeah i'm just gonna read a few of them Yeah, that actually makes more sense, saying it that way, because it did feel like it was just thrown on and tacked on for the last second, you know. Well, the whole offspring part.
That could have been the build-up to the next one. Yeah, possibly. But we did get a lot of scores from you guys, so thank you very much to everyone who gave us your reviews and scores. On average, our listeners gave this movie a 7.3. So again, a pretty solid score. And that just leaves me and Unico on a scale of 0 to 10. What are you going to rate Alien Romulus? I think this is very, very good compared to the other ones.
Apart from the original 2, obviously. It's the best one to come out since then. I'll give it an 8.5. You are aware that's what you gave the original Alien. Yeah. Okay. But I would want to change that, you know that. To a higher score? Yeah. Okay, that's fine. I'll let you off then. I thought you were going to say a lower score there. I was like, get absolutely fucked.
Remember, we were going to change the scores when Candy was on. Yeah, we did. Yeah, we've been working our way through that. Yeah, I was going to change that one. You can change it for me now if you want. I was going to change that tonight. Okay, you know what? Since it's this one and only special occasion, I'll change it to a 9 for you. Well, it's not like I haven't said I'm going to be...
It does increase Alien's overall score from a 9.2 to 9.3, which is what Aliens, which is top of our leaderboard, got. But Aliens just keeps top spot based on like...
further down denominators. So that's how close it is at the top between those two movies. Anyways, 8.5 for Alien Romulus. Yes. Okay. I... think this is the only reason i'm taking the points off is genuinely the last bit where it does the perfect analogy is it feels like it's tucked on never realized till now i was just thinking it didn't fit you know i mean yeah that and
basically the cgi a rook yeah i i really really like this movie i think this possibly will go down as one of my movies of the year um you know it's not going to be my the movie of the year for me but it's definitely going to be up there i think it's definitely sorry really bad call but no it's definitely up there i think it was a pleasant surprise i think
I went into it with a little bit of apprehension based on what, you know, we had from Covenant and Prometheus. But knowing that Fede Alvarez was in the seat, that kind of put me at ease a little bit. I went into this relatively confident that we were at least going to get something passable and in the end we ended up getting what I think is a pretty damn good alien movie. It was never ever going to live up to alien or aliens as I said earlier.
you'll be lucky if we ever get close. A movie that's even close to those. But... Put it this way, see all the alien movies that have come out since. I've always seen them in the cinema and every single one. I think this is the one since.
those original two that I've talked through the least to the person that I was with you know what I mean like normally you're fucking like any other one you're like well that was shit well this is shit well that was shit you know and this one there wasn't that much time she said stuff like that
Yeah, so I give this movie huge props for that. Having said that, there are issues with it. Some of the CGI, as we've discussed, you know, is... is really fucking bad so i take a point off it for that um i i tend to agree like i wasn't overly enamored with this whole like offspring ending um we always get with an alien movie like one final standoff don't we when just when you think they've won so i get that they maybe want to do that again um but i didn't think it was particularly executed well
so probably a point off of that as well but having said that you know i thought the xenomorph look cool i thought there was some really nifty special as uh practical effects in here i thought the face huggers in particular were really fucking cool in this movie um so yeah good, solid entry overrun. I'm gonna give it an 8. An 8? An 8. That's fair enough. You are normally like 0.5 beneath me.
is that a thing a lot a lot I got this pointed out to me and I'm like bullshit and then I was thinking about it it's probably right they're like Ian always seems to be either very close to your score like 0.5 or 1 away I'm now, like, having a look through. On ones we agree on, obviously, not fucking ones. Well, obviously, you know, obviously. But, I mean, I guess, you know, we...
Thing is right. Go on, go on, have a quick look and tell me if it's right, because I was thinking about it, and I'm like, yeah, I remember that. I remember that. I mean, there's 116 movies to, like, sift through there. I can see quite a few. I do see quite a few where we're half a point or a point out.
But I think when you get to the point where we've also reviewed 116 movies, and regardless of our slightly different tastes, I think we both have a similar level of appreciation for a lot of movies. Yeah.
obviously there are big outliers in that and there are movies that we are just completely disagree upon but i think especially when it comes to like these types of movies i think we're relatively similar in our sort of yeah like and taste for them so it's maybe to be expected um i'm still probably down as being a slightly harsher critic than you oh well that's what i'm saying most most of the ones is your 0.5 or 1 basement
Like, I do total up how much points we've given up, so like, because I use a spreadsheet for our leaderboard, I just put a little formula at the bottom to see how many points we've given over all the movies. So we've reviewed 160 movies. Of those 160 movies, there are two that I've yet to score. And I've given out 710 points, right? Right. Out of those movies, there are one, two, three.
Three, four, five that you have yet to score. Really? What, five? Four, sorry. There are four that you have yet to score. You haven't scored Maniac, you haven't scored... May, Saw 10, or The Woman in Black. And you've given out 721 scores. So I've scored two more movies than you and I'm 11.9 points behind. So we're similar. Oh, yeah. Anyways. I thought I gave you the scores for Maniacan though. No? No. Anyways. That is going to do it. Oh, no, it's not.
I haven't given the overalls. So all of our scores, I don't, I think I forgot to do that last week as well for Maxi, to be honest. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm fine. Did you have a concussion as well? Yeah, I might explain a lot. Anyways, all of our scores combined with the correct scores gives Alien Romulus an average score of 7.7 out of 10, and it puts it in 38th. place on our leaderboard of now 116 movies. It has the exact same score as Prey, Trick or Treat, Evil Dead Rise and Cube.
I think like if you were to watch like five movies in a day I think that's pretty solid like five films to pick yeah I was thinking that was pretty good you know um But yeah, do you want to know how fucked up my head is right now? So you were saying, I said about you having a concussion thing, and then I got a mental image of somebody kicking you in the head and your eye popping out. Oh, thanks. Thanks for that. I appreciate that.
I don't know why my brain went that way, but you know, like the good old comedy one where it's, you know, flying out. Yeah, the proper, like, Evil Dead style, yeah? I'm glad you find it funny. To be honest, come on, if you saw that, you would laugh.
Yeah, sure. Anyways, that's going to do it for this week's show. Thank you very much once again to everyone for tuning in. We'll just quickly run through those socials again. If you would like to support us, you can do so on X at Dan Podcast. We're on Facebook, Instagram. threads and blue sky at pod of the damned you can email us at pod of the damned at gmail.com and you can subscribe to us on patreon patreon.com forward slash pod of the damned uh
up next on the show i'm not actually sure what we're going to be covering next because we've got a list of movies we've got to do but me and you have decided to throw in a couple of extras so i'm not going to say what's next on the show because i'm not actually sure what we're going to record next uh we'll need to discuss that off air um but Thank you so much for everyone who's been tuning in so far. Thank you, Nico, once again for joining me.
cool thank you for having me on again no worries at all once again our best wishes go out to candy um who's still uh unfortunately uh dealing with some health issues and and and such so uh she is unfortunately not gonna she will be back she'll be back on the podcast at some point um
And yeah, we just need to figure out when that's going to be. But our best wishes to Candy. Hope she gets well soon. Yes, and that I think will do it. So until next week on the Pod of the Damned, just remember, you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't.